Some 45 years ago, termites activity had damaged the bottom of nice butterfly tong and groove paneling. The town requires a building permit for any project. It was the good time to put everything to code and install an egress window.

9:00am on a Sunday morning. John calls me:”Do you repair furniture… I want to be ready for Thanksgiving”. Sure: I jump in the car to inspect each piece and give a realistic opinion of how much time would be necessary to ensure the integrity of the chairs, the need to refinish a table before the holidays parties. Two days… this can be challenging! Let’s go: I’ll write the outcome soon.

Damaged antique hospital chair. Just an example: this chairs was NOT the one I had to repair before Thanksgiving!

12:30. The visit revealed the need for one armchair arm that needs tightening before the holiday’s sit-down dinner. This is a “new” construction all held by nuts and bolts instead of tenons. Some Allen bolts need to be taken care of at the seat/arm joint. Bot the arm is attached to the back with a “barrel” bolt. We’ll see.

A second chair needs spherical casters. These will be ordered.

Specific sourcing of adequate hardware

New dowel to secure chair arm while not damaging the upholstery

Three chairs were retightened with bolts. However, one of the armchairs had to be taken back to the shop. A new floating tenon had to be created because the upholstery covered the original break. After a day’s work and clamping, John and his family had the chair ready for the celebration.

This work lead to additional refinishing assignment I will describe in alater post.